The Prayer of the Sword is a four-stanza prayer attributed to Lirio, recovered one stanza at a time between 1120 and 1889. It is the third piece of the anthology of the Poet Paladins.
| Type | Work (prayer) |
| Found | Jerusalorium, 1120; Paris, 1889 |
| Spanish entry | La plegaria de la espada |
Text
«Que vuelva la chispa antigua, / que el acero vuelva a arder, / no por gloria ni por bronca, / sino por volver a ser.»
«Piedra negra, mano firme, / plegaria bajo el aliento, / y en cada roce que insiste / se despierta el juramento.»
«No es el brillo lo que busca, / es el alma bajo el orín — / que hay fe que no se herrumbra / aunque el metal sí sufrió el fin.»
«Y cuando salte la chispa, / aunque sea una nomás, / sabrá Lirio que la espada / nunca dejó de rezar.»
In English: “Let the ancient spark return, let the steel burn again, not for glory or anger, but to be again. Black stone, steady hand, a prayer under the breath, and in each insistent stroke the oath awakens. It is not shine it seeks but the soul beneath the rust; there is faith that does not rust though the metal met its end. And when the spark leaps, even just one, Lirio will know the sword never stopped praying.”
Recovery
Each stanza came attached to something:
- With the blessed sword on the shelf of the Sancta Sanctorum in the Temple of Jerusalorium (1120), beside a silver cross and three flasks of holy water.
- From the smith of Jerusalorium, who recited it while repairing, in full only to whoever had the first.
- With the fall of the cursed helmet outside Paris (1889), when Lirio recovered what he had lost; another copy places it in the fountain of the garden of the Alpha and the Omega, where Lirio renounced.
- When the clock was wound at the end, as time stopped beneath the cathedral.
The archivist who gathered them suspects the prayer was meant as an oath fulfilled in parts.
Context
- Lirio’s sword blessing is intermittent: it can be active or not. The entry infers that the prayer’s single “spark” names this.
- Lirio, the Templar of León, renounced the powers of his God and swore to protect Kronamon, son of the god of time.
- The third stanza fits a later event: four youths of Sogol pulled Lirio from a snow mound in the land of Ice, his old armor rusted. Whether it is prophecy or memory depends on an unfixed date of composition.
- The poem names Lirio in the third person: either he speaks of himself as oath-takers do, or the author is someone else (a companion, a squire, the sword itself). Of the Poet Paladins, Maristo spoke two lines and Benetton filled notebooks.
Open questions
- Who placed each stanza, and whether the smith knew its author.
- Which copy of the third stanza is authentic: helmet or fountain.
- Whether Lirio ever said it aloud.
- Which of Lirio’s two or three swords is the praying one.